SENDYNE AWARDED PATENT FOR ITS HIGH-EFFICIENCY ACTIVE CELL BALANCING TECHNOLOGY

Method Prolongs Life and Increases Available Capacity of Large Battery Packs for EVs and Grid-scale Storage

New York, New York, October 5, 2012 – Sendyne Corp. was awarded a new patent for its active balancing technology. Patent number 8,269,455 was issued by the US Patent Office for a Charge Balancing System with high efficiency and the ability to provide continuous and bi-directional charge transfers among cells in a large battery array.   

“Proper cell balancing not only increases available capacity for each discharge cycle, but also extends the lifetime of a large-scale battery pack.  Effective balancing technology thus has a direct impact on the cost of battery storage,” Says John Milios, Sendyne’s CEO.

Currently most battery packs employ what is called “passive balancing” to equalize cell charge. Passive balancing works by dissipating the energy of cells with greater charge to harmonize them with cells of lesser charge.  The excess energy is dissipated as heat.  This process works only during the charge cycle; no balancing occurs during discharge and idle. In addition to wasting energy, this method slows down the charging process.  During battery operation “stronger” cells end up underutilized – their effective energy capacity left untapped.  Finally, this method cannot correct imbalances that occur during a normal battery cycle nor account for power output differences among cells. 

Sendyne’s highly efficient active cell balancing method does not have these limitations.  Balancing can be performed at any point in time, with or without the presence of a charger, with very small power losses. Utilizing this method, “weak” cells can be protected from overstressing, thus extending their life expectancy and subsequently the life expectancy for the whole pack.  More of the total energy storage capacity of all cells is utilized, regardless of variations in capacity from one cell to the next.  This reduces the need for pack overdesign.

This is the second patent issued to Sendyne for its innovative charge management technologies. This patent strengthens Sendyne’s IP portfolio, which includes 5 issued patents and numerous patent applications for technologies and semiconductor circuits aimed at reducing the cost and increasing the performance of energy storage systems.

The patent application process was handled by Oppedahl Patent Law Firm, LLC.